Middle East Breaking News: Russia Says Assad Is Ready for Peace Talks

by Wochit
1:09 mins

Middle East Breaking News: Russia Says Assad Is Ready for Peace Talks

by Wochit
1:09 mins

Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said that the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was ready to engage in peace negotiations without preconditions and he urged the United States and other Western nations to bring Syrian opposition groups to the table for a new round of talks.
In rare remarks on Egypt's government crisis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that the fall of the president, Mohamed Morsi, demonstrates the weaknesses of political Islamist movements. He said he thought radical Islamism was wholly unsuited to dealing with a global economic and information revolution, and "goes right back to medievalism against the whole thrust of modernity, so over time it's bound to fail".
Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he expects recently announced peace talks with the Palestinians to be tough, and that any agreement reached would have to be ratified in a national Israeli referendum.